The new sequel, London Has Fallen, implausibly ups its predecessor’s stakes to "Die Hard in the City of London." Unfortunately, widening the scope this dramatically causes the entire fragile action-movie axis to spin wildly out of control.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Like its predecessor, the film is content to dumbly relish in the inanity of Mike's rampage.
Screen International by Fionnuala Halligan
Creepy “send them back to Fuckheadistan” sentiment overwhelms London Has Fallen’s guilty pleasures, its meaty violence and xenophobic nastiness giving the cheddar an unpleasant aftertaste.
For all the slicing and dicing of the editing, narrative momentum grinds to a trudge after the synthetic spectacle of the capital’s undoing.
The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
Perhaps the movie’s politics—which range from tone deaf to irredeemable—would be more of an issue if it weren’t so inept.
It’s all so overly macho that it plays like a camp pleasure-cruise.
Brash, brutal, and simplistic in equal measure, it’s a retrograde work that, for better and worse, delivers its old-school mayhem with punishing precision and unrepentant glee.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
There is some surreal fun at the beginning as everything collapses.... But then it’s the same thing over again.
The Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy
While not nearly as elaborate, nor as visually sophisticated as the last Mission: Impossible outing or the most recent Bonds, London Has Fallen is actually more plausible at its core, if not in its details, which is partly why it succeeds in laying claim to an audience's attention for the entirety of its swift running time.
It’s a film that doesn’t so much invite you to switch off your brain as take it out and dump it in the nearest popcorn box.